Civilizational Metamaterials: Engineering Coordination Under Capability Gradients and Structural Turbulence

[2606.00235] Civilizational Metamaterials: Engineering Coordination Under Capability Gradients and Structural Turbulence Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Physics > Physics and Society arXiv:2606.00235 (physics) [Submitted on 29 May 2026] Title: Civilizational Metamaterials: Engineering Coordination Under Capability Gradients and Structural Turbulence Authors: David Orban View a PDF of the paper titled Civilizational Metamaterials: Engineering Coordination Under Capability Gradients and Structural Turbulence, by David Orban View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: We argue that governance must transition from a normative discipline to an engineering discipline, and we develop a formal framework, inspired by the physics of metamaterials, to make this transition quantitative and testable. Artificial General Intelligence affects civilization primarily by increasing decision velocity while human verification capacity remains bounded. When the cost of validating AI-generated outputs exceeds the expected utility of acting on them, rational agents default to inaction: a stable but catastrophic Nash equilibrium we term the Freezing Equilibrium. Drawing on metamaterials, where emergent macro-properties arise from designed microstructure, we develop a phenomenological constitutive law for institutional coordination: $R_{\mathrm{eff}} = \beta \cdot (1-\rho) \cdot (1-\tau) \cdot (1-\gamma \rho \tau)$, where $\beta$ is the decision branching factor, $\rho$ is provenance fidelity, $\tau$ is the verification rate, and $\gamma \in [0,1]$ captures correlated-detection synergy between provenance and verification failures. The model predicts a sharp phase transition between self-healing ($R_{\mathrm{eff}} < 1$) and self-destabilizing ($R_{\mathrm{eff}} > 1$) regimes. We introduce a three-class provenance taxonomy: cryptographic, institutional, and context binding, and derive four falsifiable hypotheses with a proposed 12-week stepped-wedge cluster-randomized trial in government grant review panels. The framework bridges AI alignment theory and institutional design. Comments: 19 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for presentation at AGI-26 (Springer LNAI, forthcoming). v2 corrects the sign of the synergy term in the constitutive law (Eq. 2) and reformulates H3 as a threshold-crossing claim, per peer review Subjects: Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) ; Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Computers and Society (cs.CY); Multiagent Systems (cs.MA) MSC classes: 91B69, 60J80, 91B06, 93A30 ACM classes: I.2.11; K.4.1; I.2.1; J.4 Cite as: arXiv:2606.00235 [physics.soc-ph] (or arXiv:2606.00235v1 [physics.soc-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.00235 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: Artificial General Intelligence. AGI 2026. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 16855, pp. 118-136. Springer, Cham (2026) Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-33195-3_10 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: David Orban [ view email ] [v1] Fri, 29 May 2026 18:10:00 UTC (560 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Civilizational Metamaterials: Engineering Coordination Under Capability Gradients and Structural Turbulence, by David Orban View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: physics.soc-ph < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-06 Change to browse by: cs cs.AI cs.CY cs.MA physics References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

Related documents

• Civilizational Metamaterials: Engineering Coordination Under Capability Gradients and Structural Turbulence#609956
• The Dynamic Necessity of the Non-Social: Four Mechanisms of Functional Gap Closure and the Long-Run Dynamic Endpoint of Group Dependence#243057
• Synergistic metasurface barrier for ventilated broadband acoustic insulation via topology optimization#1158285
• Façades / Couverture / Etanchéité#311809
• Assessing Spatial Variability of Thermal Conductivity and Volumetric Heat Capacity in Hemp-Fibred Cob Walls through In-Situ Measurements#971228